May 9 We Are Better Together

Golf, basketball, tennis, flag football, softball...you name it, I was on it.

I LOVE being a part of a team.

To me, there is nothing more incredible, fun, and exciting than to be a part of than a team that is passionate about one common purpose and works together and cares for one another well.

One of my favorite parts about my job is that nursing requires this exact kind of teamwork.

One of my nursing school professors used to always say, "Nursing is a team sport."

And it was one of the only things that ever got me excited about nursing school (if that's even possible). This saying was also one of the truest and most applicable lessons that I took away from nursing school.

As nurses we rely on one another, we rely on our doctors, we rely on our techs, we rely on our physical medicine therapists, we rely on our social workers and case managers.

Just like they also rely on us.

We need one another.

And if we didn't have our team, we couldn't do our jobs.

We are better together.

Today's work culture - and society as a whole - seems to promote this idea that we shouldn't have to rely on others.

We believe that true success comes only to those who work hard on their own without asking for help from others.

But I can't think of a single shift that I could have gotten through without the help of others.

And the truth is, we aren't just better together at work when we need someone to help us reposition our patient, clean up a mess, or save a life.

We are better together as believers, in our every day lives, when we come to one another and walk with one another and learn from one another.

Today, our relationships have become superficial, our conversations hollow, and our ability to grow in intimacy with one another, nearly impossible.

We make major life decisions based on what we feel and what we believe to be right and fail to test those ideas with advice from others, and wise counsel.

We only hang out with people when it is convenient for us, and we fail to be intentional about setting aside time to actually deepen and strengthen our relationships.

We've failed to remember that we need one another.

And the truth is, lonely successful people make for lousy leaders and live lonely lives.

And by lonely, I don't mean that you will find yourself standing at the height of your success with no one around you.

By lonely, I mean that you will find yourself standing, wherever you find yourself, with tons of family and friends around you, and not a single deep and meaningful relationship.

And if you need to, replace the word "successful" with "well-traveled" or "well-educated" or "busy" or "important."

Whatever it is that is keeping you from deeper relationships. We have got tot identify that.

And if we do not learn to walk in community towards Christ, we will always walk in isolation towards destruction.

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."
Hebrews 10:24-25

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
John 15:4-5

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In a conversation with my roommates the other day, I compared walking through this life with walking through a minefield...

There would be some seasons of life where we would be walking in between the buried land mines, but we were bound to step on a few along the way.

That was my life advice for our conversation that we were having about all the many changes that life brings and all the hard things we seem to have to go through to learn and grow.

To which my roommate so lovingly and semi-sarcastically responded, "Wow, Anna. That was really helpful."

lol.

If you know me well, you know that I can tend to take a slightly critical view on things. I'd like to say I am a realist, but I also know I can lean towards the overly critical.

So the sarcastic admonishment from my friend was well deserved.

And while it has been said before - and with great truth - that we are either preparing for a storm, walking through one, or coming out of one, we as Christians can not use these phrases as an excuse to have a negative view on this life we've been given.

Growing up in the Arizona desert, rain can come to feel like just as exciting of a phenomenon as snow on Christmas Day.

Things aren't much different here in Texas.

When it rain we immediately have to drive 10mph on roads where the normal speed limit is 65mph. We take videos, don't leave our houses, and will use it as an excuse to not go to the grocery store, run errands, or skip church.

You think I'm kidding...

Nevertheless rain is not something we can go without. Not even in Texas or Arizona.